THE FOLLOWING Spoiler Alert: Guess Who’s Back?

[This post contains a big spoiler for THE FOLLOWING’s second season. Enter at your own risk.]

He’s back!

After Joe Carroll presumably perished in a fire in the season 1 finale, THE FOLLOWING bosses confirmed that James Purefoy (Joe) would return in season 2 during Friday’s Comic-Con panel…right after Purefoy “crashed” the panel. (Make sure to follow along with all the panel’s live happenings here.) Kevin Bacon as Ryan Hardy answered a call from Joe, playing confused because Joe was “dead.”

“On the contrary, Ryan, I’m very much alive and kicking,” Purefoy as Joe said. “My apologies for not calling sooner…You didn’t really think you could do a Comic-Con panel without me?”

But is Joe alive?

“Yeah, I guess he might be alive,” THE FOLLOWING creator Kevin Williamson said. “Of course Joe Carroll will figure into next season.” But how? He was vague.

For Williamson’s part, he never really hid his intentions to keep Joe on the canvas.

“I think it’s safe to say [Joe’s] death — even Ryan’s been stabbed in the gut — is just sort of a metaphor for death, so they can both have a rebirth,” Williamson teased to me right after the finale aired. “I don’t think we’re fooling anyone. Let’s just see.”